Night Time Creatures
A WebQuest
created for 1st Grade by
Charity Frick
The
Source: http://i.d.com.com/i/dl/media/dlimage/78/79/4/78794_large.jpeg
Introduction Task Process Evaluation
Conclusion Guidance
Sources
Every night, as
we are cuddled up in our covers, sleeping so soundly, many animals are wide
awake. They are searching for food, playing, and making new homes. These
animals are called nocturnal animals. We have been reading fiction and
nonfiction books about nocturnal animals such as Stellaluna by Janel
Cannon, Bats by Gail Gibbons, and Where Are the Night Animals? by Mary Ann Fraser. From this literature, we found some
really cool facts about these animals. Now you are going to search for some
more WOW facts about nocturnal animals.
Your job for
today is to find out more about two nocturnal animals, owls and bats. You will
be working with a partner to watch videos online, search websites for unique
facts, and complete a scavenger hunt.
Science Standards
1.5.1 Observe and
note differences among plants and animals of the same kind.
1.3.1 Recognize
the basic needs of living things.
Today you will
have three main jobs. Let’s get started!
1. You will click
on each animal below to watch a short video from National Geographic. While
watching the video, collect five unique facts about the owl, and five unique
facts about the bat, on the paper provided by your teacher. First, click the
owl. Next, click the picture of the bats. Scroll down to find the same picture
and click it to play the video.
2. Now you will take the
facts you just discovered from National Geographic and use them to create a
Venn diagram. Compare the bat and owl in the given Venn diagram. The outside
bubbles are the unique facts that show how that specific animal is different. The
overlapping area, from the two bubbles we’ll create,
are the facts that make owl and bat similar.
OWLS BOTH BATS
3. Finally, you will
click on the icon below. This will take you to a PBS website. You will see a variety
of nocturnal animal eyes. Click on each eye to read and discover facts about
the eye and the animal it belongs to. Use the clues found in the facts to
complete the Scavenger Hunt. When you have finished the Scavenger Hunt, click
the green “BACK” button to return to the WebQuest.
Each
pair of students will complete the Venn diagram, with 10 facts from each
animal, with 90% accuracy of placement into the diagram. The pairs will also
complete the Scavenger Hunt, with 90% accuracy. After the WebQuest, the
students will all participate in an oral discussion of their findings.
Nocturnal animals
have special characteristics that enable them to interact and survive during
the darkness of night. Their eyes have special adaptations to make it possible
for them to hunt for food or find new homes. Owls and bats have very light
sensitive eyes. They do not see in color. Their eyes also see outlines and
imperfect shapes. They also have a very strong sense of hearing to help them
hunt. Owls and bats have many similarities, but also many differences. Owls
have very large heads and eyes that face forward. Their heads can almost turn completely
around in a circle. Owls are able to sneak up on their prey because of their
fluffy feathers that give silent flight. Owls are generally birds that are
found to live alone or with one or two others. Owls sleep in trees, during the
day. Not all bats are nocturnal, but many are. They sleep upside down in caves
during the day. The cave provides protection from the bat’s enemies. Bats do
not live alone. They live in colonies of up to 20 million members. A bat’s body
is small. Their wings are like long fingers that are covered with a skin-like
exterior. Some have tails and others do not. Here are the answer keys:
Venn Diagram: Answers will vary, according to facts found. Facts
from videos are found above.
Scavenger Hunt:
1. I have eyesight
that is comparable with a cat. I have an
unusual scalloped pupil.
What
am I? (Flying Gecko)
2. I
can see as well as a human. I bury myself by day and become active at night.
What
am I? (Cuttlefish)
3. I
have extraordinary night vision. I can see a mouse creeping through brush
nearly a football field away. What am I? (Owl)
4. I
live in
What
am I? (Tarsier)
5. My retina is
folded to provide better and clearer vision than some of my other relatives.
What
am I? (Fruit Bat)
6. I have sight- and heat-detected abilities to
find my food. What am I? (Pit Viper)
This WebQuest is
an excellent avenue for a teacher to use in the classroom. Before using this
WebQuest, students need to have practiced using Venn diagrams. It is also
useful to build background knowledge of nocturnal animals through fiction and
nonfiction literature, videos, and pictures. Throughout the WebQuest
experience, students are given the opportunity to become more familiar with
using the internet as a source to discover information. They also compare and
contrast owls and bats with the facts they have discovered from the National
Geographic videos provided. Students will be challenged to complete a Scavenger
Hunt on different type eyes of nocturnal animals. These activities give each
student thinking power and adaptation knowledge. After using this WebQuest in
my own classroom I found that one improvement to make for the students’
success. It would be to give the pairs a Venn diagram on a larger sheet of
paper. I provided them with a print out on 8 ˝ x 11-sized paper.
Their large writing over took it and they ran out of room!
Answers.com.
(2008.) Wikipedia: Common vampire bat. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from http://www.answers.com/topic/common-vampire-bat.
Bettman, C. (2000). Public broadcasting service. Retrieved
March 17, 2008, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.html.
National Geographic Society. (2008). Retrieved March 16, 2008,
from http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Videos/.
